I have been invited as a special guest of Phil Kim, owner and editor of Famous Monsters, the classic magazine dedicated to monsters, aliens and other creepy and disgusting monsters of the world of entertainment. I am working on a top secret project with Phil and it’s been a pleasure to get to know him and be associated with such a stellar and historical magazine. I will also be there representing Gates and Heavy Metal.

I love old monster movies, aliens and other crazy movies from my childhood. I think Vincent Price gave me first nightmare! Well all of that and more is represented here! Check out the trailer for the event below.

Here is the SCHEDULE:

Friday

Main Screen

11:45 AM – Boneyard Collection ($6.00)

1:50 PM – Wanderlost

4:00PM – Independent Film Panel (Free)

5:15 PM – Horror! ($10.00)

7:20 PM – Dollar Babies B & Dollar Babies Panel($10.00)

10:30 PM – Downstream With Intro from Cast and Crew($10.00)

Screen 1

11:45 AM – Crustacean($6.00)

1:20 PM – Serials!($6.00)

3:00 PM – The Feed With Derailed($6.00)

Screen 2

11:45 AM – Dollar Babies A($6.00)

2:00 PM – The Inheritance($6.00)

4:00 PM – My Cousin’s Keeper With Tom Woodruff Q&A(Free)

Saturday

Main Screen

11:45 AM – Monsters!($10.00)

1:35 PM – Closed For The Season($10.00)

3:45 PM – The Reel!($10.00)

6:00 PM – Masque Of The Red Death & Masque of the Red Death Panel ($15.00)

9:15 PM – Dracula 80th Anniversary Panel & Dracula ($15.00)

Screen 2

10:00 PM – Repo! Featuring Shadowcast group “Addicted to the Knife” to perform.($10.00)

This will be an event for Digital LA, which is a very cool organization that brings together leaders in the digital community whether it be entertainment, advertising, games, apps etc. Run by Kevin Winston, Digital LA throws some really awesome events here and I am honored to be on the panel.

This will be focusing on Digital Comics and a precursor to Comic Con at the end of the week.

I will be joining a panel of digital comics experts to discuss digital and comics, from iPad apps to digital distribution and digital brand extension, etc. This will be Digital LA’s third annual pre-Comic-Con panel.

If you’re in LA, please join our me and a wonderful panel of industry leaders to discuss the trending and relevant topic of DIGITAL MEDIA! The discussion will focus on digital comics (which is why I’ll be there), animation and games experts for Digital LA’s third annual Digital Comics panel.

The goal is to discuss how comics and comic book characters are part of an overall entertainment franchise, including animation, games, movies, iPad apps, web series, and promotion via social media. Which is indeed Gates!

On Monday July 18th, I was part of a really cool panel hosted by DigitalLA at Meltdown Comics in Hollywood.

The room was jam packed with people and the panel was loaded with really awesome people who were on top of their game in the digital space when it comes to comic books.

It was very Marvel, DC and Indie flavored.

The goal was to discuss how comics and comic book characters are part of an overall entertainment franchise, including animation, games, movies, iPad apps, web series, and promotion via social media. We focused on this and all of the aspects of brand awareness and different variations of media platforms companies and independent creators are using to get their ideas to the masses. Just days before comic con in San Diego it was fun to get together and learn form and meet some amazing new peers who share the same passion for this industry as I do.

The moderator was Kevin Winston of Digital LA @DigitalLA @kevinwinston

It was a great night and I got to be exposed to a lot of great people doing some cool things. So here we go…

1) Devil Inside wecomic rocked. It’s going to be big and the creators, Todd Stashwick and Dennis Calero are doing an amazing job with it. I see this on TV and in my living room with real actors and an awesome new show that doesn’t suck. Fuck Glee, I want me some Devil Inside–which is a story about when the Devil get tired of being the Devil and calls it quits–and goes on the run in human form.

Check it out…I am going to be following these guys for sure!

These guys need and deserve our support.

2) Thomas Jane is a cool dude and Raw Studios is about to kick ass. I was the first introduction and of course dropped an F-Bomb, while Thomas Jane’s daughter was sitting there. She immediately called out, ” $1 – ONE DOLLAR!” It was funny and perfectly timed. And yes I gave her the dollar! I think they are about ready to blow up in a bug way with some new titles and some other fun things. Can’t wait to hear what happens next. My eyes will be on these guys too!

3) Graphic.ly is about to become the leading publisher of digital comics by being super innovative and embracing the fan feedback and transmedia opportunities that await all franchises. They are going to give a hub for the independat creator to compete with and rub elbows with the big dogs like Marvel, DC and more.

The audience was filled with up and coming comic stars and representatives from cool companies like deviantART to Comicbooked.com as well as Disney, Paramount and more. It was a great event and I was honored to be a part of it. David Uslan was an awesome guy and really explained the cool things that graphic.ly was about to do and in the process of doing right now. This company gets it and I’m excited to see where things are heading.

Hal Hefner (me) will be appearing at the Comikaze Expo on November 5th & 6th, 2011.

I’ll be at Table number 128.

WHAT IS THE COMIKAZE EXPO?

Well I had an awesome meeting with the main organizer Regina Carpinelli and she had me convinced that this show is going to ROCK!!!!! Like me, she wanted to bring the true feeling of culture, family, comics and art back to the “comic con”.

Why? Well, it seems like they are trying to do something different. I know everyone around the world is envious of folks who go to the San Diego Comic Con, and I have to admit, there are some things about it that are pretty cool. Well I’ll be the first to tell you, it ain’t all its cracked up to be. San Diefgo Comic Con has now become a big masturbation circle for studios and other corporate entertainment monsters and in my opinion, this past San Diego Comic Con in 2011, was pretty awful. Aside form the ridiculous ticket prices, packed isles and overpriced food, it seemed almost exactly like the 2010 show, from floor layout to exhibits and products. To me that sameness brought little excitement and I felt that there was a kind of arrogance about the show that said to me, “HA! You’ll buy our shit no matter how little we do to it.” Also the sign up process for “new artists” is a sham. They set up this fake phone line that was always busy and a fake email that nobody from San Diego Comic Con ever returned an email from. It was infuriating and insulting to the intelligence of every new artist, creator or professional. So needless to say, I’m done with San Diego Comic Con for a while. And besides, why the hell is this con in San Diego? Bring it to LA!

Anyway, enough ranting on SDCC, but the reason I’m doing so is because I’m very stoked about the Comikaze Expo. It is being billed as an event unlike any other comic-related event in the US. Having spent much time researching both local and national conventions in the United States, the Comikaze Team created an event that was affordable, and filled with all the reasons people used to love the San Diego Comic Con and a whole bunch more. Regina and her team are working, very hard to create a multi-tiered extravaganza created by real comic fans with deep ties to the entertainment industry. While Comikaze still might have a classic convention vibe, it’s much more than that because the people who are putting it on actually care. The Comikaze Team did not want to make an event for industry people and hardcore fans only, they thought about the everyday guy who doesn’t drive a BMW or the every day high school girl who loves Anime. Instead, the Comikaze Expo team, designed a more balanced event as an alternative to the standard fan convention that is dedicated to the city of Los Angeles and our proud geek community, above all else.

The Team putting on the event, really wanted to make the Comikaze Expo, an integral part of the city of Los Angeles, something both residents and visitors can enjoy for years to come—without breaking the bank to get into the show. This strategy was so that fans could spend the money on the things they love, rather than shelling out a ton of cash just to get inside to the event. Drawing inspiration from the city and the fans, Comikaze is an eclectic mix of LA and geek culture that spans the realms of entertainment and comic culture to low brow art. Comikaze has been created to be something unique for the city of Los Angeles and I’m proud to be a part of it.

HAL HEFNER and the ART OF GATES:

As the creator of Gates, Heavy Metal Magazine’s first online comic, I am pretty excited to be a guest at the Comikaze Expo on Noevember 5 & 6 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. I will be bringing with me, the art of my comic book, Gates, and so much more.

WHAT WILL HAL HEFNER BE SELLING: GATES THE COMIC RELATED ITEMS

At the Comikaze Expo, I will be selling;

1) Limited edition prints for the comic Gates.

They will be signed by me, right there in front of you!

2) Exclusive Paintings: Painted by hand in acrylic paint, I will be selling a bunch of art for the new science fiction comic Gates. The scenes are all very creature based and a must have for fans of the comic.

3) Art Prints: of various pieces of my work from Han Solo, to Deadpool to Optimus Prime.

4) Sketch Cards: I will be selling existing Sketch cards from sets and originals.

5) Original Concept Sketches from the Gates comic book

6) Exclusive sketch book comics
Here are some awesome videos for the Comikaze Expo! Hope to see you there in less than two weeks!